F*ck tha Police
F*** tha Police- by N.W.A. Problem Police brutality against African Americans was causing unrest in many communities Sample of lyrics A young n*gga got it bad 'cause I'm brown And not the other color so police think They have the authority to kill a minority F*ck the police F*ck the police F*ck the police F*ck the Police Event Instances of police brutality Places Around the US Person many people Date Produced August 9, 1988 Location Produced Los Angeles, California Relevance The first three phrases are important because they explain the grievances NWA has against the police and how they are being unfairly treated. The second set of phrases are the most profound phrases from this song, and express the feelings NWA had against the police because of the injustices they faced https://www.revolt.tv/2019/2/21/20824193/tale-of-the-tape-n-w-a-s-fuck-tha-police. Significance of Song in History This song was a direct challenge of the authority of the police in the Los Angeles area and was sensational in its blunt language criticizing the police for their violent tactics against gang members and the African American population https://www.thedailybeast.com/a-brief-history-of-the-phrase-fck-the-police. In particular, the use of the f-word was especially vulgar, disrespectful to the police, and offended white mainstream sensibilities. Even NWA said they did not create "F*** tha police" for people to enjoy; they made it specifically for people who wanted to hear the truth. Contemporary Connections One contemporary connection is with the Black Lives Matter movement that seeks to highlight police brutality against African Americans https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/kelleylcarter/how-fuck-tha-police-started-a-revolution. Movements against police brutality in the late 1980's, as embodied in "F*** tha Police", were minimized as gang vs. police conflict. Today's Black Lives Matter movement has been successful because it has moved into the main stream, although it draws from a long history of friction. A quote from Ice Cube about "F*ck tha Police"'s relevance today: “I think it just shows the problem at hand. The problem is, first of all the police are trained to win no matter what. Win an argument, win a situation — that’s how they’re taught. You add racism to that and it’s just an evil combination, and people are starting to recognize that. The camera phones, social media, everybody’s more in tune with each other. Things are shown instantly, so it’s really up to the prosecutors and the judge and the politicians to start holding these officers more accountable. Even captains, lieutenants and chiefs have to hold their own officers more accountable for what they do and not always have just tons of excuses.” Trivia # The profane language and content in "F*** tha Police" caused this song to be one of the first songs with a parental advisory warning and a censored title. # This song caused the FBI to write NWA a letter of disapproval saying they were misrepresenting the police. # People on the streets in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in 1996 constantly chanted the lyrics to "F*** tha Police" during protests against electoral fraud. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuck_tha_Police # Ice Cube, one of the members of NWA, played a cop in the movie "21 Jump Street". Reason we chose this song We saw the major connection between the issue addressed in this song in current trends impacting society. The Black Lives Matter movement gained a lot of momentum in this decade due to an increased amount of police brutality against African Americans. Both the Black Lives Matter Movement and "F*** tha Police" were able to draw such a large following due to their use of media to convey their sentiments. Popular media has also been used throughout history to draw attention to the need for improving equal civil rights for African Americans in particular. Songs like Nina Simone's "Strange Fruit" (1939) and J. Cole's "Be Free" (2014) were both monumental in bringing attention to important civil rights issues, just like "F*** da Police" was in 1988. https://medium.com/cuepoint/fuck-tha-police-in-historical-context-d87c691715d4